Mob Colors and behavior

[rbtmatrix]

I was returning to the game after a long hiatus, and decided to start my TE over. In doing so, I noticed a problem with the mobs in Luna... have not left there yet so IDK about other zones, I am posting this here because its not really a bug. I searched as well as I could without actually reading every thread to try to find a similar topic and failed, so here it is.

I just think that there should be some defining details about mobs. I am pretty sure that any target-able object can be given various target icons, either Grey for set location (like nav beacons and quest npc ships, etc.) Green for friendly, yellow for non-hostile, and red for hostile.

Any mob that will attack you on detection should have a red icon, and any mob that will wait for you to attack before it will attack you should be yellow. I am pretty sure I recall there being yellow icon mobs back in them good ol' days, and that is also the standard with almost every MMO I have played (there are a few that color code off of difficulty to kill).

pretty simple, don't shoot at green, red is aggressive and will try to kill you, and yellow won't attack unless provoked (neutral)

Edited September 17, 2010 by Enzo Matrix

[sirmorte]

I completely agree with this. A red mob should attack on sight. A Yellow or other color should attack you only if you attack them first.

[r8rsfans75]

I have always wondered about this and thinking back to live I was almost positive that if a mob was red it attacked on sight regardless where now on the emulator, there are several red mobs that don't do anything unless you shoot first.

Also there are the gate turrets, which I think is something still be to be looked at down the road, there are far more red gate turrets now than there was in live (iirc in live, the only red gate turrets were the pirate gates if you had bad faction). Of course I didn't get as far in live as I am now, and there were plenty of areas I never got to in the game, and it was 7 years ago, so everything is a little fuzzy.

[Slayerman]

A little fish wouldn't always attack a big fish just because it didn't like it!

This is probably a bravery issue... But i could be wrong

[Trylobyte]

Agreed with Slayer; these pilots aren't stupid. They're not going to openly attack a vessel that's significantly stronger than them no matter how much they hate them unless they're crazy (Bio-Rippers) or suicidal.

[seekeronos]

A little fish wouldn't always attack a big fish just because it didn't like it!

This is probably a bravery issue... But i could be wrong

I third this, although I think those weaker enemy mobs should turn yellow (pun intended! ) in the face of superior firepower.

In other words, have the Bravery modifier override faction.

Gates, stations, and turrets would/should be of CL66, and therefore immune to bravery considerations (i.e. they'll stomp your guts out anyway, so their true colour will accurately reflect their faction standing to you.

I'm reaching a bit on the bravery modifier, as it is probably a numeric value, but tossing this out there:

The settings range from "Coward", "Cautious", "Indifferent", "Bold", "Fanatic".... Cowards will always run away or try to kite you, unless you are more than six CLs under its strength; Cautious will engage only if you are more than three CL's below the mob's; Indifferent will engage you within about three CLs plus or minus the mob's; Bold will attack you until you are about six CLs above the mob (typically these will be social/pack mobs); and Fanatics will be downright suicidal regardless of circumstances.

So in my theory, the faction/mob icon colour could reflect this:

Base faction standing less than (-500) - Absolute bravery modifier * number of social mobs of the same kind - difference in combat level = observed faction colour

Examples:

A "Mordana Shadowstrike Cruiser", CL45, bravery modifier of "Fanatic" will ALWAYS attack you if you have poor Mordana faction.

A single 4th Circle Chavez Thug, CL29, bravery modifier of "Cautious", would appear red and attack you if you are under CL26 and have poor Chavez faction. To folks CL 27 and up, it would appear yellow and not aggro, even if you have terrible faction standing.

A cluster of eight of those same CL29 Chavez thugs would modify their bravery to "Bold", and attack a poorly-factioned player up to CL35.

Once your faction standing increases over -500, you'd gain "hard yellow" status, and the bravery/social pack modifiers are ignored; same for gaining green faction (+2000).